The United States Postal Service (“USPS”) is an independent government agency that provides mail delivery and other services to the public. The USPS is widely recognized as a safe and reliable means for sending and receiving mail and other items. With the advent and steady growth of electronic mail and electronic commerce, the physical mail stream will increasingly be utilized for sending and receiving items, packages and the like.
Managing the transport of items is not simply a matter of moving the items from one point to another. Instead, after items leave their point of origin, they are typically moved through several transportation legs before arriving at their destination. In many instances, the origin of an item may be serviced by a first carrier's facility located in one geographic region, and the destination may be serviced by a second carrier's facility located in second geographic region. The two carriers may span the distance between their respective geographic regions by transporting the items through exchange facilities.
For instance, China Post may receive a package from a customer in Huhehoate, China for delivery to an individual in Leesburg, Va. In a first leg, China Post may transport the package from an origin facility to an outbound exchange facility in Beijing for international shipment. Next, in a second leg, the outbound exchange facility may transport the package by airplane to an inbound exchange facility in; for example, Dulles, Va., where the package is received by the USPS. Then, in a third leg, the USPS may transport the package to a destination post office, for delivery to the recipient in Leesburg, Va.
Although this system may appear simple in the context of a single package, managing such a system becomes an enormous task when the transport network includes thousands of origins and destinations, hundreds of exchange facilities and/or multiple carrier services. Data management is therefore critical for carriers to control the movement of items in the transport network.
To manage a network such as that described above, carriers may rely on a network model that defines the end-to-end paths based on the transport legs between each facility within the network. However, because the various legs may be linked through common facilities, even minor errors in the network model may cascade throughout the network and result in costly problems. For example, if the data describing the flight schedules used at a carrier's exchange facility is incorrect, the errors may impact each facility having transport legs linked through that exchange.
There are many potential sources of error that may corrupt a network model. For instance, data submitted by the carriers may include typographical mistakes, incorrectly formatted data, missing data, obsolete data, or other issues caused by human error. Furthermore, failure by carriers to provide updated data inputs for inclusion in the network model by prescribed deadlines may cause the network model to rely on out-of-date data. For instance, an update of the network model may be required on a periodic basis corresponding to operational changes, such as seasonal shifts in flight schedules. However, if one or more facilities fail to deliver data on time, the network model cannot be updated before the operational changes come into effect. Consequently, the network model will not reflect actual operations within the network.
The time and cost of identifying and correcting errors with the data supplied by facilities is a major concern for the carriers who rely on the network model. When data errors are identified, the data must typically be corrected by the responsible facility. Verification and testing of a network model may, in fact, take numerous corrective cycles during which data is repeatedly returned for correction. Moreover, there may be a long time lag from the time when data errors are discovered and the time corrected data is returned by the responsible carrier facility. Once the data is corrected, the verification and testing process must be restarted. Each of these corrective cycles cost the carriers time and money, and may result in a failure to complete an updated network model in time to meet operational deadlines.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for systems and methods for providing software that addresses one or more of the above-noted problems and/or disadvantages by improving the management of data.